Day 3- Anna and I got up to see sunrise neat the salt flat which was lovely and we had some fun taking photos of our tall shadows in the early morning sun!

We left after breakfast and immediately started our drive across the salt flat, which was as you imagine, a massive expanse of white, which meets the blue sky at the horizon. It is the largest salt flat in the world at 12,000 sq km and sits at 3653m. We were at Isla Incahuasi/Isla del Pescado by 9am. This is an island covered in big cactus and in the rainy season becomes surrounded by water and it isn't possible to access the island. I'm glad we were able to visit as you get great views from the island across the salt flats. In our hurry to get back down in time I fell and bashed my knee on a rock- it hurt a lot! Luckily no serious injury but it was really painful. Managed to get back down and we continued to the next stop, in the middle of nowhere on the Salar so we could take photos, as all you can see for miles are the white hexagons of salt.

Anna and I had of course planned a jumping picture here but with my recent knee injury and her sore ankle (from falling down a step in the hotel last night due to no lights being on) we couldn't do it, which was a shame, but we got lots of other good pics. Here is where people take optical illusions type photos, where you can be standing on a bottle, or be about to be crushed by someone's shoe, or holding the hand of a (toy!) dinosaur….it was fun taking some of these pictures! Next stop lunch and time for more pictures before leaving the Salar to drive back to Uyuni via the small town of Colchani where the co-operatives process salt which is extracted from the Salar- they estimate that around 20,000 tons are extracted in this area and used within Bolivia. Our final stop was the train cemetery which is on the outskirts of Uyuni where there are quite a few old steam locomotives sitting and rusting.

It really was a great trip full of breath taking scenery and although I find it hard to pin down the highlights of my trip, I can safely say that this area will be one of them.

NB. For anyone reading this and thinking of doing this trip San Pedro-Uyuni or vice versa I would highly recommend Cordillera tours for the trip.

Anna and I were undecided on whether to stay the night in Uyuni or go to Tupiza on the evening bus- in the end we decided on the evening bus so Anna stayed with the bags in a restaurant while I went to get tickets and call a hostel. We had dinner with Glen and Lynette then went for our bus. It was the worst journey of my trip so far I think! We had rubbish seats at the back so couldn't recline them at all, plus mine was in an even more upright position. It was a bad road and we noisily bumped along for 6 and a half hours arriving in Tupiza at 2.30am. I slept a bit but it was noisy and cold, despite lots of clothes and using Anna's sleeping bag for a cover!